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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549443">No More Apologies Allowed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye'>SaraJaye</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Girl Meets World</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bullying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e17 Girl Meets Rileytown, F/F, Guilty Riley, Hugs, Protective Maya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:02:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>720</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya hasn't left her side in the last week, but instead of feeling safe, she feels guilty.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maya Hart/Riley Matthews</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>127</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No More Apologies Allowed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's been a week since they chased off the bully, and Maya still insists on spending the night at her house. Mom and Dad don't even bat an eyelash, it's not like she doesn't already keep a toothbrush, pajamas, and a change of clothes there.</p>
<p>Mom and Dad are having dinner out with the Minkuses tonight, though. A group effort to make sure Mom is completely over what happened to Riley so she doesn't commit violence against a minor. Or that minor's parents for not monitoring their daughter's activities and letting her have a phone in the first place.</p>
<p>(It's for this reason Riley didn't tell Mom that Maya found the bully and decked her in the face. Then she'd be upset about Maya fighting. And that she didn't get to do it herself.)</p>
<p>"You don't need to keep staying here, you know," Riley says as Maya walks out of the bathroom in the same pajamas she always wears when she spends the night. "I'm sure your mom misses you, you could be going out with other people, hitting Demolition..."</p>
<p>"No thanks." Maya flops down onto the bed. "Mom understands you need me more than she does, and she's got a date with Shawn tonight anyway." Riley smiles a little.</p>
<p>"Well...that's good. But still-"</p>
<p>"Nothing short of being eaten by a velociraptor that rips the roof off this place is gonna pull me from your side, and even then I'll just kick its guts until it throws me up. I'll be covered in stomach acid, but I'll be by your side," Maya insists. Yesterday it was a hurricane blowing off the roof and sweeping her into Oz, the day before it was being abducted by giant purple aliens.</p>
<p>Maya stays, but does Riley really deserve it? Other kids were there when she yelled at Maya and threw ice cream at her, but no one's called her out. Maya ice creamed her right back, but after that it was like nothing happened. She spends the night, tucked into Riley's bed with her, arm thrown across her waist.</p>
<p>It should comfort her, but all it does is make her feel guilty.</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>Maya looks at her like she's sprouted antlers and started yodeling.</p>
<p>"Why what?"</p>
<p>"I don't deserve you. I called you a bully, I pushed you away." Riley sits down in front of the window seat. She doesn't deserve the bay window right now, either. "You forgave me too fast." Maya rolls her eyes, pulling herself off the bed and dragging Riley over to it.</p>
<p>"For what, being hurt? Being afraid to talk about the real problem? Being human?" She pulls them both down and throws a blanket over them, Riley finds herself practically in her shorter friend's lap. "How many times have I been a jerk to you when I was upset?"</p>
<p>"That's different," Riley mutters.</p>
<p>"No, it's not. You forgave me for being a jerk because you were more worried about <i>me</i> being okay than your hurt feelings. It's the same with me."</p>
<p>"But you're troubled. You've had-"</p>
<p>"If you finish that sentence I'm going to dump leftover spaghetti on your head tomorrow morning after you've washed your hair," Maya threatens. "I never got a free pass for being rude, and neither did you. I hit you with ice cream, you spent forty-four minutes in the shower getting it out of your hair, and that was it. It's over." And Riley knows she's right. She's known Maya since they were little kids. She's the one person Maya could never lie to, because Riley wouldn't let her.</p>
<p>"I was mean to you."</p>
<p>"I've been through worse. So enough of this apologizing and thinking you're a bad person for doing something I do to everyone, or next time I'll dump a vat of expired pudding over your head," Maya threatens, and Riley chuckles weakly.</p>
<p>"I still feel bad."</p>
<p>"I know." But Maya's hold stays tight and Riley slowly lets herself relax into the snuggle, burying her face in Maya's shoulder.</p>
<p>"You don't owe me anything," Maya continues. "No more apologies, no favors, no groveling. I got you back, and that's all I needed. End of story."</p>
<p>Riley smiles a little against Maya's shoulder.</p>
<p>"You're still here."</p>
<p>"I'll fight my way out of a velociraptotr's stomach to keep it that way."</p>
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